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KQED's Forum

Alec Nevala-Lee on Buckminster Fuller, ‘Inventor of the Future’

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6656 Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"From a modern perspective," writes biographer Alec Nevala-Lee, Buckminster Fuller resembles "a Silicon Valley visionary who was born a half century too soon." But the relentlessly optimistic futurist, entrepreneur and geodesic dome pioneer was also a self-promoter who exaggerated his inventions and failed to credit his collaborators. We’ll talk to Nevala-Lee about Fuller’s scientific and cultural contributions and his complicated legacy. Guests: Alec Nevala-Lee, author, Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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Support for Forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.

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From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of

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Leo and Lucille Frank, a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is

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accused of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice,

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1:09.0

From KQED.

1:26.6

Thank you. From KQED. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, this is Forum.

1:29.9

I'm Rachel Myro and Fermina Kim.

1:32.2

Buckminster Fuller was anti-establishment before the concept existed.

1:36.8

He talked like a startup founder before Silicon Valley existed.

1:41.0

Bucky Fuller wrote many books himself and has been written about many times over,

1:46.1

but never quite like Alec Navala Lee has done with Inventor of the Future.

1:51.1

Navala Lee's delved behind the myth-making to uncover the truth about Buckminster Fuller

1:56.2

and found a genuine visionary who was also not everything he claimed to be. That's coming up right after this.

2:13.8

Welcome to Forum. I'm Rachel Myro in Fermina Kim. Full disclosure here, when I was about 10 years old in 1980,

2:22.9

I was one of three children asked to interview a kooky famous genius inventor named Buckminster Fuller.

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